Dragon Ball Rewatch, Week 3 - DB Episodes 11-15

[Robo4900]

Hello, ladies, gentlemen, and everyone between and beyond, and welcome to week 3 of the first Dragon Ball rewatch of the decade.
We're doing five episodes a week, and we'll be watching every single episode of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT. All 508 episodes. Plus the TV specials and the movies (more on that later, when we actually get there).
I encourage you all to watch in Japanese with subtitles, especially if you have never done so before, but watch along in whichever way brings you the most joy.

Once again, posting the thread in the evening. Apologies for the somewhat anaemic trivia section this week. Was in a bit of a hurry. One of these days, I'll get this ready in advance and actually post it in the afternoon.

Previous thread: Week 2 (DB 6-10)
Next thread: Week 4 (DB 16-20)

Anyway, without further ado...

Episode 11 - At Long Last, the Dragon Appears!
Dub title: The Penalty Is Pinball
Originally aired 7th of May 1986

After being put to sleep by sleeping gas, Goku and the others have the Four-Star Ball stolen from them! Pilaf finally has all seven Dragon Balls, and he attempts to call forth Shen Long!! In order to stop Pilaf’s scheme, Goku uses the Kamehameha to open a hole in the wall of the room that they are imprisoned in! As Pu’er and Oolong transform into bats and head out the hole to take back the Dragon Balls, Shen Long is finally summoned! Will the world become Pilaf’s…?!

Anime-only/filler content: Goku and Yamcha try to break out of the room, Pilaf's dream sequence, the entire seqeunce from the gang leaving the trap room to them winding up back in it thanks to the giant pinball.

Episode 12 - The Wish to Shen Long
Dub title: A Wish To The Eternal Dragon
Originally aired 14th of May 1986

Shen Long finally appears! Pilaf tries to say his wish, in order to rule the world!! Because Oolong said his wish of “Give me a girl’s panties” a moment sooner, his wish ended up being granted! With the wish granted, Shen Long returns again to the Dragon Balls, and they scatter to the four winds. Enraged, Pilaf imprisons Goku and the others in a room covered in fortified glass and iron plates, intending to kill them with the sun’s hot rays, but…?!

Anime-only/filler content: Shu's Dog Police chase.

Episode 13 - Goku’s Great Transformation
Dub title: The Legend Of Goku
Originally aired 21st of May 1986

Goku and the others have been captured once again by Pilaf. That night, Goku looks at the full moon, and suddenly turns wild and starts transforming into an Ōzaru!! He smashes the prison that they are imprisoned in, and Yamcha and the rest manage to escape, but having lost his reason, Goku continues to rampage!! Yamcha then cuts off Goku’s weakness, his tail! Goku wakes up after returning to normal. The party promises to reunite, and the Dragon Team splits up.

Anime-only/filler content: Tons of little moments, most notably Pilaf turning the plane around to try and go all King Kong on Oozaru Goku. Also Pilaf running away whilst telling Shu and Mai to shoot Goku with a glock.

Episode 14 - Goku’s Rival? Arrival!!
Dub title: Goku's Rival
Originally aired 28th of May 1986

Done with collecting the Dragon Balls, Goku heads to Kame-Sen’nin’s place to receive training! However, in order to become Kame-Sen’nin’s pupil, the fee is to bring a pichi-pichi gal!! At the same time, a person comes from across the sea. The boy, who calls himself Kuririn, came in order to become Kame-Sen’nin’s pupil, just like Goku! In order to be received as a pupil, Kuririn presents a large stash of porn magazines that he brought. Will he manage to safely become a pupil…?!

Anime-only/filler content: Bulma, Yamucha, Pu'er, and Oolong getting stranded in the jungle and lost in the desert, which is never ultimately resolved on-screen.

Episode 15 - The Peculiar Girl, Lunch
Dub title: Look Out For Launch
Originally aired 4th of June 1986

Goku and Kuririn set out in search of a pichi-pichi gal, the fee for becoming a pupil of Kame-Sen’nin. Saving Lunch, a girl who was pursued by the police, they immediately bring her to Kame-Sen’nin’s place! Having passed the test, Goku and Kuririn are recognized as Kame-Sen’nin’s pupils!! But it turns out that Lunch is an incredibly peculiar girl with two personalities, and becomes either violent or peaceful each time she sneezes!!

Anime-only/filler content: Lunch in the Western bar and robbing the train.

-

Interesting trivia:

• When Oolong turns into a bat, he has genitalia, which was never censored by the French dub or Blue Water's English dub.
• Episode 12 is the first in the series to show a recap of what happened in the previous episode, something the series would become famous for. Episode 8 does comes close by retreading Goku and Chichi arriving at Kame House.
• Oolong's wish here is responsible for the negative energy that birthed Liu Xing Long, the Six-Star Evil Dragon in Dragon Ball GT -- much to her embarassment.
• While they originally had 26 episodes ordered, the "BLT dub" of Dragon Ball, with the familiar "Ocean cast" in Vancouver, stopped here at episode 13, for unspecified reasons. These days, low ratings are generally assumed to be the cause, though there are a number of other possible factors.
• Arguably, this is the first time Toei inserted a significant amount of anime-only/filler content into Dragon Ball; while they had inserted short scenes -- particularly those involving the Pilaf gang -- throughout the first ten episodes, episode 11 contains an extensive sequence involving a pinball, which was never in the manga. I have often wondered whether this was done to pad out the first storyline to 13 episodes.

Episode summaries, airdates, and titles courtesy of Kanzenshuu's episode guide. Filler breakdowns and Dragon Ball logo courtesy of KBABZ.

[Xell]

In the midst of watching these episodes. Did everyone miss this thread?

[ABED]

Kuririn's introduction is perfect Toriyama. The filler makes it even better. We're lead to believe he's fearsome only to have expectations subverted. He's also one of my favorite characters in all of DB.

[Robo4900]

In the midst of watching these episodes. Did everyone miss this thread?

In my case, I'd usually be bumping it every couple of days with my individual episode notes, but I have a uni assignment due in a few days, so I've been in too much of a crunch to really watch any episodes.
Probably I'll marathon a few at once after I've sent the assignment in.

If anyone else is super busy this week, please do say so; I could extend this week out a few days.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

In the midst of watching these episodes. Did everyone miss this thread?

I tend to binge the episodes after a few days. Dragon Ball always works better in chunks. I'll definitely have rewatched them all by Wednesday but after that I'm willing to wait to do episodes 16-20 if everyone needs more time.

[Robo4900]

I decided to take a half-hour study break to watch an episode. So...

Episode 11 - At Last The Dragon Appears!

The piece of music that plays right at the beginning, during the recap is the classic spooky/sinister theme. Love that one. It's really great.

Pilaf: "They don't look like they have any balls..."
Mai: "Perhaps between that man's legs."
Mai, that joke was bad, and you should feel bad.

I love the reused animation of Yamucha using the Rogafufuken.

On one hand, I'm curious what "a hero-hero, pafu-pafu, kyoi-kyoi, or an inguri-monguri" would be, and I find it mildly annoying that the subs just romanise those things, no note, nothing to explain what you're reading... On the other hand, maybe I'm better off not knowing.
Either way, curiosity got the better of me, and I googled it; I found Herms talking about it on a Kanzenshuu thread from 2009, and he couldn't fathom out what this means, so... I guess it's just nonsense?

Oh hey, the little theme that plays after Mai gets the ball, as we see the moon, and go into Pilaf's dream sequence, is the theme that played when Bulma offered to tell Goku about the Dragon Balls in episode 1, before we cut away to the Pilaf gang.
I do really like the themes used for events relating to the Dragon Balls. They're really good.
... Also, somehow I completely forgot about Pilaf's dream sequence. And y'know what, I also forgot about everything that happens from then up until Pilaf summoning the dragon, to be honest.

Oh hey, the theme that plays after they "escape", as the Pilaf gang are walking down a hallway, is one of the key themes from the Tenkaichi Budoukai.

I know it's filler, but the incompetence of the Pilaf gang leading them to forget to close the door is great. And even though it's out of bloody no-where and is probably the most bizarre thing in this first storyline (except maybe the dolphin giving Goku & Chichi directions to Kame House), I kinda dig the whole pinball chase. Feels very Scooby-Doo, in a... Well, in a surreal, weird, entertaining way. Even though it's ultimately kind of a waste of time. Although it is kinda neat to spend more time with the Dragon Team V1 hanging out together before they disband for a little while.
KBABZ, I assume you cut the entire sequence there for your fanedit?... Probably for the best, if so.

Aww, bat Pu'er is adorable.

Y'know... Why hasn't any Dragon Ball story had its villain go to the shape shifting school that Pu'er and Oolong went to? Would make for a unique threat. Imagine if Freeza went to shape-shifting school then showed up on earth to fight everyone in the next Super storyline.

Title of this episode is a bit of a tease. You only actually see Shen Long for like twenty seconds at the end, impressive as he is.

Okay episode. First half was great, second half is mostly just a waste of time, albeit a fun waste of time. Feels kinda like they knew what material they wanted 12 and 13 to cover, but that left 11 with only half an episode's worth, so they inserted the pinball chase to fill it out and set the stage for 12 and 13 to be a much more full-on duology of episodes to close the storyline.

[MyVisionity]

On one hand, I'm curious what "a hero-hero, pafu-pafu, kyoi-kyoi, or an inguri-monguri" would be, and I find it mildly annoying that the subs just romanise those things, no note, nothing to explain what you're reading... On the other hand, maybe I'm better off not knowing.

From what I understand they are just a variety of juvenile names for sexual activities, that kids would recognize. Pafupafu of course being Roshi's favorite in the series, and inguri-monguri I think is supposed to refer to intercourse itself. Not sure about the rest but it's the same idea using Japanese onomatopoeia.

In a later episode during the Red Ribbon arc Bulma has similar dialogue with Roshi, but in that instance Mandelin just goes with "...something really dirty and naughty with me!" instead of writing out the expressions.

[KBABZ]

I know it's filler, but the incompetence of the Pilaf gang leading them to forget to close the door is great. And even though it's out of bloody no-where and is probably the most bizarre thing in this first storyline (except maybe the dolphin giving Goku & Chichi directions to Kame House), I kinda dig the whole pinball chase. Feels very Scooby-Doo, in a... Well, in a surreal, weird, entertaining way. Even though it's ultimately kind of a waste of time. Although it is kinda neat to spend more time with the Dragon Team V1 hanging out together before they disband for a little while.
KBABZ, I assume you cut the entire sequence there for your fanedit?... Probably for the best, if so.

This, Muscle Tower and the Pirate Cave were at the top of my hitlist when it came to bulshitting-around filler sequences! Outside of specific fillers arcs of course like Colonel Silver, World/Heavenly Training and Wedding Dress.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Not a huge issue but I never understood the decision for Shen Long to appear at the end of one episode and to repeat the summoning sequence in the next.

Great debut for the Dragon though. Love how they show him in darkness before lighting up to give that ominous feel, which is appropriate considering the wish could potentially have negative consequences in the presence of evil.

[KBABZ]

Great debut for the Dragon though. Love how they show him in darkness before lighting up to give that ominous feel, which is appropriate considering the wish could potentially have negative consequences in the presence of evil.

This is a factor I don't think is mentioned enough, but Shenron and Porunga have always had this intimidating air about them, especially in the early series with the first two summonings. Obviously a wish-fulfilling Dragon would have a grand air about them, but the "I feel bad for wasting this guy's time" edge I think is unexpected and unique.

[MasenkoHA]

I never cared much for the final four episodes that close out the Shen Long arc they just seemed so stretched out for early Dragon Ball like the first arc had to be 13 episodes.

Something to think about if Grandpa Gohan told Goku never to stare at a full moon he must have survived at least one transformation prior to his death. Every other time we saw a great ape de-transform his power was cut off one way or the other. Gohan definitely didn’t destroy the moon and it seems doubtful he cut off Goku’s tail did he just evade him until Goku turned back? (When the sun came up I guess?)

The gag where Roshi is looking at Kurilin’s skin mags and then gags when he accidentally sees a male mag was amusing but it makes one why Kurilin had that in his collection in the first place.

Not a huge issue but I never understood the decision for Shen Long to appear at the end of one episode and to repeat the summoning sequence in the next.

Save money and time, I would think.

[KBABZ]

Something to think about if Grandpa Gohan told Goku never to stare at a full moon he must have survived at least one transformation prior to his death. Every other time we saw a great ape de-transform his power was cut off one way or the other. Gohan definitely didn’t destroy the moon and it seems doubtful he cut off Goku’s tail did he just evade him until Goku turned back? (When the sun came up I guess?)

We know from the 21st TB that you can revert someone's Oozaru state if you destroy the source of what initiated the transformation (this extends to the infamous Z filler with the pod projection moon). Presumably Grandpa Gohan waited until morning?

Not a huge issue but I never understood the decision for Shen Long to appear at the end of one episode and to repeat the summoning sequence in the next.

Save money and time, I would think.

I think it's simply for recap's sake: outside of the second Fire Mountain episode, it's the first time there's ever been a recap of what happened at the end of the previous episode.

[ABED]

I never cared much for the final four episodes that close out the Shen Long arc they just seemed so stretched out for early Dragon Ball like the first arc had to be 13 episodes.

With the exception of the pinball episode having a final stretch of episodes lead one into the other feels justified. It is afterall the climax. I am a little confused by your point though. What's the significance of 13 episodes? I know it's a full season in the US, but I don't know if that number applies to Japan.

[KBABZ]

I never cared much for the final four episodes that close out the Shen Long arc they just seemed so stretched out for early Dragon Ball like the first arc had to be 13 episodes.

With the exception of the pinball episode having a final stretch of episodes lead one into the other feels justified. It is afterall the climax. I am a little confused by your point though. What's the significance of 13 episodes? I know it's a full season in the US, but I don't know if that number applies to Japan.

It's probably an arbitrary "number of episodes to see if this series will work" thing. It could also be the minimum amount of episodes they felt they could cover the first arc in. The filler in Episode 2 makes sense since that episode is about Goku and Bulma's first night together, but the Pilaf finale of episodes having both the Pinball scene AND the Dog Police chase is a bit of a headscratcher unless they were trying to have Shenron's summoning be the climactic final thing in an episode.

[Robo4900]

Well, my brain's sufficiently frazzled at the moment, so I'm gonna take a half-hour break. Naturally, that can only mean one thing...

Episode 12 - The Wish To Shen Long

Here we are, fellas and fellain'ts -- the first summoning!... For real this time. Far better than the one at the end of #11 IMO.


I do like Yamucha slowly becoming better at handling himself around Bulma. Their faces are mere inches apart as they look through the hole in the wall. Now that he's hung around Bulma for a whole day, and he's been following them for probably like a week or moreat this point, he's pretty okay being around her.
Again, quite true to my own experiences with social anxiety -- just diving in and ploughing through it, you slowly acclimatise to the presence of whoever it is you're anxious about being around. Plus, it's solid character growth.

Also -- this footage of the Shen Long right before the title card was reused in the Saban version of Tree Of Might. More on that when we get to that movie in roughly November.
Oh, and the footage of Pilaf fantasising about ruling the world was cut into BLT's edit of DB episode 1, oddly enough. In this episode, it feels like it goes on way too long, though. Feels like a bit of a waste of time.

Holy shit, Shen Long is really terrifying and huge. Not just physically, his voice performance is pretty scary too. Damn.

And there we have it, everyone. The first wish... Panties. Goddamn, Oolong. Well, at least we know the Dragon Balls get their revenge for how silly that wish was, much later on.

Oh hey, that footage of the balls scattering was used in Kai. Wonder if they scanned the whole episode to do that.

Naturally, Goku completely forgets that Bulma's the one who promised to give him his grandpa's ball back when the wish was made.

I know it's filler, but I kinda dig the addition of the dog police squad. Gives us a fun action beat to end the first half of the episode on, and to begin the second half on. Plus, it builds on Goku realising he was out of strength because he's hungry, and gives it a pretty funny Looney Tunes-esque punchline.
Also, a further use of that stock footage of Yamucha posing for the Rogafufuken. I should keep track of this. We're on 2 reuses of it so far.

Goku hitting his head on the ceiling is hilariously-drawn.

"Apparently it takes a year or more after a wish is granted for the seven balls to turn back into the Dragon Balls. In other words, they remain ordinary stone balls for a full year!"
This was strictly followed from here on out...
Except for the very first time it became relevant, of course; the time between now, and the next time we see a ball, in the Red Ribbon arc, is just a few months in-universe.
Does that mean Dragon Ball is forever ruined by this irreconcilable break in internal logic and consistency? The entire world no longer makes sense, and the story is fundamentally broken forever?... No. It's a plot hole. Something to poke fun at among nerdy friends. Because plot holes do not matter; they are not criticisms, they're barely even trivia. They're the writing equivalent of someone leaving a coffee cup on set; it's fun to point out, but if a movie or TV show is bad, it won't be because of a little nitpick like this. *steps off soap box*

I do appreciate Pilaf's plan to easy-bake the protagonists to death.

"[The Oozaru] demonlished our house and a bunch of trees!"
The Oozaru really did that? What a fucking bastard! He dares to destroy Gohan's house! I bet he really pissed Gohan off!! Fuck him!!

A lot of really great horror imagery in this episode -- Shen Long's Lovecraftian scale and generally terrifying presence, and Goku's nightmarish transformation into the Oozaru.

I kinda wish Toei had gone just a little step further with goofy Pilaf gang shenanigans here and had the three all sleeping in the same bed, Looney Tunes style. Still, the way they did it, with Shuu and Mai in plain beds, and Pilaf in a fancy four-poster is pretty great.

Narrator: "Goku has looked at the full moon and transformed into a monster ape! Even the writer is frightened out of his wits! He had no idea at all!"
It's the little things that I really love about early Dragon Ball. It's just so aggressively charming, even when the imagery is of a nightmarish transformation of a young boy into a giant ape monster.

Fun episode overall, but definitely the precursor to the real grand finalé.

Oh hey, the NEP is voiced by Yamucha (and Pu'er, for a moment).
Has anyone ever catalogued who voices the NEPs? I feel like that'd be quite interesting to see.

The gag where Roshi is looking at Kurilin’s skin mags and then gags when he accidentally sees a male mag was amusing but it makes one why Kurilin had that in his collection in the first place.

I wonder if Kuririn is bisexual.
Dragon Ball could probably do with some positive representation of minorities, so... I accept this headcanon.

[KBABZ]

Oh, and the footage of Pilaf fantasising about ruling the world was cut into BLT's edit of DB episode 1, oddly enough. In this episode, it feels like it goes on way too long, though. Feels like a bit of a waste of time.

My thoughts exactly!

And there we have it, everyone. The first wish... Panties. Goddamn, Oolong. Well, at least we know the Dragon Balls get their revenge for how silly that wish was, much later on.

This and the previous episode I think have two of the more creative and hilarious dub changes. The first being when Bulma pulls the finger, she says "My magic finger says it's somewhere in the ceiling!", and the other being with Oolong's wish where he says "The world's most comfortable pair of ultra-soft UNDERWEEEEEAAAAARRR!!" (which of course means Shenron interpreted that wish to mean panties).

The gag where Roshi is looking at Kurilin’s skin mags and then gags when he accidentally sees a male mag was amusing but it makes one why Kurilin had that in his collection in the first place.

I wonder if Kuririn is bisexual.
Dragon Ball could probably do with some positive representation of minorities, so... I accept this headcanon.

Maybe Krillin was trying to hit all the bases just in case!

[MyVisionity]

Shen Long has a great presence. I agree that he should be terrifying since he is an omnipotent god and everything. He was voiced by the great Kenji Utsumi (Budoukai Announcer, Norimaki Senbei, Rikuumu, etc).

I've always enjoyed the Oozaru aspect of the series because of how silly it is while still being scary and dramatic. It makes for some awesome battles later on but is still funny as hell.

[Robo4900]

This and the previous episode I think have two of the more creative and hilarious dub changes. The first being when Bulma pulls the finger, she says "My magic finger says it's somewhere in the ceiling!", and the other being with Oolong's wish where he says "The world's most comfortable pair of ultra-soft UNDERWEEEEEAAAAARRR!!" (which of course means Shenron interpreted that wish to mean panties).

I'm not a fan of Oolong's self-motivation speech or whatever when he was running in to do it, but I do honestly find the "world's most comfortable pair of ultra-soft UNDERWEEEEEAAAAARRR!!" line utterly fucking hilarious.

Maybe Krillin was trying to hit all the bases just in case!

True. That does sound like something he'd do.

God, I love Kuririn. Piccolo's definitely my favourite character, but you gotta love good ol' chestnut-head.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Speaking of the BLT dub, I was checking out Episode 12 just there and I find it interesting when Goku is talking to Bulma and Yamcha about how his grandpa Gohan told him to never look at the moon, and when Bulma is asking him about when he died the implication is that "you don't think you could have done it even by accident". I can't remember the redub, I'm guessing it was kept but I find it interesting that the BLT dub didn't try to cover this up like the Z dub did.

It was one of the best points of character development in the Saiyan arc as as Goku was showing introspection and wanting to atone for his past being a father and role model himself by then. Bulma asking Goku is great foreshadowing.

[Xell]

I struggled with these last few episodes of the Shenlong arc.. The whole thing felt incredibly slow compared to the fun adventure prior to it. A massive drag with stiff animation.

It was really nice how Yamcha almost takes on the role of a leader! I quite enjoyed his moments and how he has warmed to the characters.

I like the idea of Bulma’s and Yamcha’s wishes coming true despite not using the Dragon Balls.

Oolong is insufferable and I can’t wait to see a little less of him. I watched last weeks batch of episodes with these ones, so I’ll make a comment about some of those episodes.. I couldn’t help but cringe when Pilaf declares how he’s going to do something ‘dirty’ to Bulma and Oolong is loving every second of it. The pay off is somewhat amusing, it’s just a shame what the connotation of it all is. But yeah, it’s funny how Roshi is portrayed as the stereotypical sleaze, yet Oolong drools at the thought of a teenage girl getting raped.

Still need to watch the final 2 episodes - I’m very much looking forward to watching this training arc and the tournament!!